Drive Back to San Jose
We had set the alarm for 5:15, Randy got up to take a shower at 5:45; we needed to leave the hotel by 7am to catch the ferry. Breakfast was served at a table by the pool, eggs and bacon with fresh squeezed orange juice. Afterwards we checked out, thanked the staff for a wonderful day, and hit the road. We made good time and arrived at the ferry at 8am, we had 30 minutes to spare. The ferry was actually pretty full, there was even a large dump truck on board with us! The trip once again took an hour and twenty minutes, with an additional 20 minutes spent docking while the shore crew tried to figure out how to work the ramp winches(!).
On the road back into San Jose we actually climbed over 3000 feet in the span of 30 miles. The Pan American Highway is a twisty two lane road with very few passing zones, and lots of very slow trucks, some going as slowly as 8 miles per hour! Randy had lots of fun picking out the right spots to pass, putting the Toyota's 3.0 liter engine to good use. The drive ended up taking just over two hours, about what we had budgeted. We stopped in at the rental car place to check what time they opened Monday morning for Dan and Assana (turned out to be 6am), then went next door to the Rosti Pollo for a roasted chicken lunch. Right on time at 1pm we pulled up at the airport where Dan and Assana dropped us off. They were staying near San Jose for two additional days. We wished them a safe rest of their trip then went inside to check in for our flights.
Flying Home
Unlike our all of our other flights, we were unable to get upgraded on the San Jose to Dallas leg of our trip, ah well. The San Jose airport was a bit of a zoo, but we made it through pretty quickly. The flight was uneventful, though it did seem pretty long. In Dallas we once again found that airports in Texas don't seem to function very well. And would someone please tell the TSA agents that they need to make up their minds about "shoes on" or "shoes off" when going through the metal detectors! In San Francisco the luggage took almost an hour to come out, no idea why. By the time we arrived home we had been awake for 23 hours. We were really glad to have a nice big bed to sleep in!
Epilogue
The trip to Costa Rica was definitely a "Rick and Randy Adventure". We had fun all week long, from the cloud forest, to the volcano, to the beach. Costa Rica is a beautiful country with an amazing diversity of plants and animals. Dan and Assana were awesome traveling partners, easy going and full of fun all week long. I'm sure we'll travel with them again in the future.
Our next big trip is diving in Belize in April. Yet another trip to the Caribbean, can't wait!
Catch-Phrases for the trip
| La Princessa |
Assana gets labeled 15 minutes into the trip by Luis |
| Dan Ramon |
Rick's name for Dan |
| El Randido |
Dan's name for Randy |
| Quizmo |
Rick asking a question |
| Factmo |
Rick giving an answer |
| Reindeer |
Don't ask... |
| Caribbean!? |
Factmo gets busted |
| I can't believe it's not dessert™ |
Barcelo dessert specialty |
| Snort |
Sound that La Princessa makes when she laughs hard |
| "Pop" |
El Randido's rain forest noise |
| Vhatever |
Half of a Reindeer "Whatever" |
| "Plink" |
The sound a Plinky Frog makes |
| Coatimundi (kwah-tee-moon-dee) |
Fun to say over and over... |
| Penguino |
Quizmo and Factmo |
| La La La La La La La, Oww! |
Ask Stumbelina for a demonstration |
| Tussin'd |
Quick fix for a cold |
| Diesel |
Use the right kind of gas! |
| Kevin of Costa Rica |
Our unseen travel agent |
| Factmo.com |
Your source for answers |
Equipment list for the trip
2 x Minolta Dimage A1 cameras, Casio EX-S3 camera, Macintosh PowerBook G4 17", Canon optically stabilized binoculars.
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